Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I am currently sitting in a McDonald's in the middle of nowhere upstate New York waiting on 10:30 shoot. I've had a productive trip. I havent been here before and I noticed a few things, it's huge, it's pretty, and there are a lot of colleges, businesses, and just interesting things here. Corning glass, Cornell, RIT, Kodak... yeah a non existent Kodak. I was shooting with a guy who explained he used to work at Kodak in Rochester and explained he had a 4x5 camera with film just sitting in his fridge. I went down to look at his darkroom and was amazed at how much equipment he had as well as the fact it was organized.. almost too organized...

He then explained he hadnt used it in quite some time and how he bought most of the equipment at yard sales. Including his $3000 enlarger for... $100. Yes One-hundred dollars. My jaw dropped to the floor. We are really transitioning out of this medium and I just cant believe it. Film makes me think. I operate on the fact I really think about the image before I click the shutter. None of my cameras have a "cloudy/sun/people" setting on them. They dont think for me, they force me to think. Not to say everyone uses digital cameras that way and film is better I just prefer the f-stop, shutter speed, and iso setting... and well that's it. It literally forces me to think about my shot after I have the idea or see the image in my head. I create better images this way. It's for me... I can only hope it will last another 50 years but I digress...

I also watched an Annie Leibovitz documentary last night. She grew up a lot like I did and thought the same way I did. The way I saw a picture was through the square image of my dad's window on his 1982 Chevy Silverado due to moving constantly from his welding life. I remember thinking how I wished I had a camera to document our lives....we loved it. My dad had a polariod and I started using that. I acquired a 110 camera from my uncle at age 10. Photographing my sister crying because I wouldnt give her my camera to get her way.

My mother asked; "why did you photograph her like that? She is crying not smiling!" I simply said; "because that is who she is."....

This is probably my favorite portrait of the most important person in my life waking up. He is so beautiful when he wakes up and I am inspired now to document even more than I have;